Llambias: Understands fan's frustrations?Most of you will be aware by now that yesterday, Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambias, issued a statement on the club’s performance in the latest transfer window. It read:
“Now that the transfer window has closed, we have had some time to reflect on the business we have conducted over the summer.
“Our aim was to secure young players who represented value for money and could add real strength to the squad. The majority of our transfer dealings were completed in the early part of the window and we feel we have signed some players of exceptional quality. Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux, Mehdi Abeid, Demba Ba and Gabriel Obertan were all brought in early and we have seen these players settle quickly into the squad and perform well on the pitch.
“Earlier this week we were delighted to sign Davide Santon from Inter Milan to fill our left-back position after the departure of Jose Enrique. Davide is an excellent young prospect and we’re sure he’ll be another superb addition to the squad. We also welcomed young goalkeeper Rob Elliot from Charlton Athletic who will help us retain healthy competition for that position after loaning out Fraser Forster to Celtic.(more…)
Sports Direct United.As the post mortem on Newcastle United’s transfer window continues amongst fans, with Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias failing in their attempt to fulfill Alan Pardew’s bold prophecy of a new striker at St James’, comes the unwelcome news that the FA will be charging Pardew for making inappropriate comments about about referee, Howard Webb, before the 20th August Sunderland game.
The fan’s cup of bile has also been added to with the news that the iconic Newcastle United sign has been taken down, possibly to make way for yet more tawdry and sacrilegious Sports Direct branding at the Barrack Road temple?
Firstly, on our manager, he has been informed that he has been charged by the FA for “inappropriate conduct” for his comments about Howard Webb, and former midfielder Joey Barton in the run up to our last encounter with the vagrants of Wearside. The charges centre around the manager’s comment’s that Webb would have to be “neutral” and “astute” in dealing with Barton’s treatment by the team from the Neolithic side of the North East, the offending comments being: (more…)
No contactIt seems that despite a lot of excitement centred around Newcastle United’s alleged interest in Nolan Roux, no contact has been made with either his current club or his agent.
Whatever you think about some of Joey Barton’s previous behaviour – and some of it was atrocious – it’s hard to deny that he was very effective on the pitch. What we could do with then is a decent incoming transfer to help us get over his exit. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem as if such a transfer is coming in the shape of Nolan Roux.
There were a flurry of reports from the French media last week suggesting that we might be interested in the 23 year-old Brest striker, but Corentin Martins – Brest’s Sports Director – simply said this in relation to any alleged offers from Newcastle:
“There has been no proposal.”
Roux’s agent is also apparently unaware of any interest from either Newcastle or FC Schalke 04, who were apparently after Roux last season and are thought to be his preferred club. (more…)
Barton: Impressed with QPR's ambition.After all the fuss and bother of the past few days, the now ex Newcastle United midfielder, Joey Barton, has finally mulled things over, and signed a deal for West London club, Queen’s Park Rangers.
There seems to be some confusion as to whether Barton has signed for three or four years at his new club, on wages that have been estimated at around £80,000 per week, though nothing official or definitive seems to have been made public at the time of writing. If these figures are roughly correct, it would mean that Newcastle United owner, Mike Ashley has played right into the hands of Barton and his agent, Willie McKay, by offering the midfielder on a free transfer after his outbursts on microblogging site, ‘Twitter’. Both Barton and McKay could also be in line to receive a lucrative signing on fee in the transaction.
Speaking to QPR’s official website, the Barton said of his move to the capital:
“It’s been quite a whirlwind, so to get things finally sorted and draw a line under it all is a great relief.”
Agent pretty sure transfer will happenCould it be that Newcastle United are indeed closing in on a ‘double swoop’ for a left-back and a striker? And will Joey Barton leave or not?
Rumours abound that we’re close to finalising deals for both Erik Pieters and Nolan Roux, although I think it’s always worth waiting to see them at an SJP press conference holding a black and white shirt before getting too excited.
The story with Erik Pieters has us agreeing a £6m+ deal for the 23 year-old left-back, which presumably also accounts for any financial clauses in his contract that were allegedly a sticking point with the deal originally.
Pieters’ agent Piet van der Pol said:
“I don’t know the exact numbers of Newcastle’s offer, but I’m pretty sure that the transfer will go ahead.”
I would imagine Pieters would slot straight in as first-choice left-back but I wonder what will happen to Ryan Taylor. I sometimes think he’s worth having on the pitch just for his set pieces given that goals in open play haven’t been our speciality since Andy Carroll left. Or at least it seemed that way until Sammyobi scored that cracker last night. (more…)
